Best Performing Plants at the 2024 Four Star Display Garden: Michigan Garden Plant Tour
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EmailDecember 18, 2024
Olivia Ott, Four Star Greenhouses, describes the outstanding performers from their 2024 trial garden from the 2024 Michigan Garden Plant Tour.
Four Star Greenhouse, the home of Proven Winners®, features a breathtaking one-acre Display Garden. Our landscape beds and combination containers feature unique varieties that highlight the Proven Winners® difference, and together create an impressive collection of plants that show their performance in different conditions.
The garden has 25 displays showcasing 2025 varieties and classic Proven Winners® standards like Supertunia Vista® Bubblegum®, Supertunia® Royal Velvet®, Blue My Mind® Evolvulus and Diamond Frost® Euphorbia to name just a few. See first-hand how many of these varieties perform in different conditions including landscape, hanging baskets and upright containers combinations.
Special features include an Award Winners section, an area highlighting Pollinators and our Supertunia® top sellers will dominate the area around the covered bridge. The perimeter of the pavilion will showcase the 2025 Proven Winners® Annual of the Year Supertunia Mini Vista® Yellow and a bed highlighting the Recipe of the Year Vista View.
Inspirational combinations, full of brilliant colors and unique habits, can be viewed throughout the garden.
Final Production of the video was completed by Heidi Lindberg, Greenhouse Extension Educator.
Video Transcript
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Four Star Greenhouse in Carlton, Michigan. I'm Olivia Display garden supervisor, and I'm here today to chair our top performers from the 2024 public trial season. First up, angel face Wedgewood pink. It's a novel cotton candy pink and white bicolor. Its unique color has irresistible impulse appeal at retail. Wedgewood pink bears large soft cleaning blossoms on well branched semi upright stems from spring to frost. Its timing matches its bi coolor companion angel face Wedgewood blue, and it thrives in hot human conditions with a height of 18 to 30 " with a spread of 12 to 18 ". Following Wedgewood pink with Angel face white improved, which has a greatly improved flower, a deeper green and glossy foliage, as well as a notably increased figure. This improved Angelonia will be easier for growers to get into color for spring sales, and it is time to match all your favorite colors in the Angel face series. Moving on to Space Age, a new series of rex Begonias including Black Hole, Europa, and Triton. Space Age Black Hole offers shining silver leaves with black edges, dark green veining, and a burgundy to black center that forms a dense, upright mounting clump. Typically, it's not something you would use in a hanging basket, but we tried it out this year with Super Bell's double Ruby, Mulanbekia big leaf, creeping Wire vine. With accents of angel wings and black hole to make a gorgeous large basket with so many different textures. Space Age Europa has large, shimmering silver leaves, rimmed in black with splashes of lavender in the center and near the edges that light up in the shade, making a top pick for 2025. Lastly, Space Age Triton is a smaller leaf rex Bgonia that is a strong grower that forms a very dense, compact mound of dark green leaves blasted with a fine silver mist. All the space age begonias offer fantastic foliage appeal all season long and stand out on the shade benches at retail. Expanding our list of heat tolerant annuals with our new totally tempted series for both arid and humid climates. These poriferous self cleaning kufia bear vibrant colored blossoms on a tighter, more refined canopy than what is typical for the species. Frosted violet offers bi colour violet purple blooms with blush pink edges, while Vivid violet has bitone violet purple blooms with rich violet edges. Richly red has rich red blooms with a deep purple center, and watermelon wine just has straight watermelon red blooms. All four of these cultivars are timed well to bloom together in our great for spring and summer production schedules. Following with another new series, virtuoso Dalhia is bringing in five new dahlia colors. Comprised of the very best genetics in their class, virtuoso Dalias have blown us away in trials with their outstanding vigor, powdery mildew tolerance, and all season garden performance. Large double to semi double flowers are produced on proportional stems above the densely mounded foliage all season long. The trending blooms have strong impulse to appeal at retail. Classy carmine a deep red burgundy, diglo yellow with bright yellow blooms. Pinkific has soft pink blooms, making it a top pick. Red Raz with deep pink blooms and lastly, my personal favorite vibrant violet with violet purple blooms. All these dahias have shown great garden performance and landscapes this season and are on top of my list for next year. Moving on to heliotropum Air Magic of Purple, it has two key improvements to make this new selection worth the switch. Incredible summer garden performance and a well branched layered habit while others can look tired and sparse by mid season. This heliotrope remains full and covered in large fragrant purple blooms with an attractive dark green foliage, making this a great top pick for 2025. While you can't go wrong with any of the current Supertunia mini vista series colors, we've expanded this color range of the mini Vista series with the new mini vista plumbin. This fucha pink plum veined cultivar that forms a glowing carpet of color persists from spring until frost without dead heading and is a must have for 2025. This durable petunia tolerates adverse growing conditions, making this plant a guaranteed home run. I personally can't wait to use plum veined in the landscape next season to see its full potential. Two more unique color pattern additions to the Supertuna line include Tiara blue and Tiara Pink. Tiara Blue has a captivating vivid violet blue flower with a white luminescent glow from the center, drawing you in for a closer look. Coupled with great vigor, this new Super tuna easily makes our top pick list for 2025. I use Tiara blue in a window box this season with Vermilionaire, Luscious Golden gate, and Royal Cosmo Lantana, making a great, colorful combo pop this summer. Tiara pink has incredible vigor, which is nearly as strong as a Super tunia vista, but more trailing with a luminescent glow from the center of the Princess pink flowers, making this a great landscape piece for mass planting. Next up, we are expanding on the unplug series with two new salvia, unplugged red and unplugged white. Stunning scarlet red flowers, unplugged red boasts with larger blossoms and greater flower power than others of this type. It stands out in the crowd and has tremendous impulse appeal at retail. It's semi upright, vase shaped habit, similar to Angelonia. Both unplugged red and unplugged white attract pollinating bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds and are deer resistant. Unplugged white is a great match for Unplugged S blue. Is the best white floured salvia we've ever tried. Crisp, white flowers held by silvery felted calixs are born prolifically all season without deadheading and have a far cleaner look than others of this type. Lastly, the first ever series of scabla with a star shaped rather than fan shaped flower. They flower on compact, densely mounted to semi trailing plants. They're extremely durable and sun pea and wind. Color doesn't get any easier than Sardiva. Sardivablue has a violet blue bloom, making it a top pick for 2025. SardivaPink with cotton candy pink blooms and Sardiva white with starry white blooms, which are all very attractive to pollinators and more compact than whirlwind scavola. They mix great and hanging basket combos. One of my top favorites, including Mizu trailing red, Sardivablue, and Super Bow's blooming punch. I would like to thank you all for being here today and for visiting our garden each year. We appreciate all MSU does in organizing this event and the feedback you provide each year.
